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It typically takes me 8 paragraphs to answer on CM as well. I can spend so much time on here. I am going to have to use parental blockers to somehow block CM during school hours.

Quoting KrissyKC:

We mostly just go with the next lesson in the curriculum for each subject. Although, they follow their own interests and desires to work on other projects sometimes, I still mostly rely on curriculum.

We got through our English books only halfway last year, so for a few weeks, I'm flipping through the pages, orally discussing and quizzing them on stuff. If they don't remember it well, we do some of the written work, too. It's perfectly fine because I got their stuff off ebay at a steal of a price, and they were actually each 1 grade ahead of where they were, so we didn't push to finish it anyway. So, technically, they are ahead. It's nice to not finish something and still be ahead, huh?

For math, they moved backward because they switched to Math U See which is mastery based and not grade level based, so I guess they are getting a review before they get into the stuff they don't know. That's cool, though, cuz it's so easy for my son that he completes an entire weeks worth of lessons every day or two.

In social studies, we have Rod and Staff Homelands of North America that we just started, and the kids have enjoyed discussing the geography of NA and tracing and creating maps. We've done a US map and Canada map so far. We would like to move to 2-3 lessons a week in this next week instead.

In bible, we practice our Junior Bible Quiz quotes and questions... work on earning badges at church... have daily quiet time, and I want to start reading about the history of missions and planning and working on a missions project that maybe they can present to the church. We also read a variety of Christian based fiction, too and read the bible.

Science? We started Apologia Anatomy at the end of last week and the kids are ELATED. We will continue with that including an experiment with mummifying fruit, creating a very detailed edible cell with jello and lots of candy (sure, why not, I'm trying to weed it all out of our system, but lets have fun with this "last" experiment first!)

Ok, I can't just answer anyone on this sight with one or two sentences... can I?

I saw some neat hundreds chart activities that involved skip counting. I don't have the websites, but there are a ton of ideas on sights like pinterest.

My kid is still struggling to count in the teens and 20's... once I get her a little solid on these, I'm moving onto hundreds charts, number lines, and skip counting.

Quoting ablackdolphin:

Our first day is Tuesday as well. We will be taking a step back in Math. She can "count" to 100 already but we need her to stop counting and be able to easily see groups of 5 without couting for RightStart Math and the abacus. So we'll work on that.

For reading I have some puzzles and games and several I Can Read books.

We're using handwriting without tears and will work on grip, and building letters with wood pieces and roll a dough letters.

For science we're using Real Science for Kids Physics and will do an experiement about objects falling.

Religion: God's Love Story and related days of creation craft. continue working to memorize the Hail Mary, work on more fluidity when making the Sign of the Cross.

Music: Listen and free sing/dance (using Making Music/Praying Twice - we're waiting on our "instruments" to arrive so we can really dive into this!)

Handwriting: Aa, Bb, Cc, Dd, name

What curriculum are you using for religion, or did you create it yourself? I ordered something from Seton, but I still need more. Your religion lessons sound like what I want to do!
Also, are you using any certain music program? Thanks so much for sharing!

I use Seton's recs for memorization of prayers (although really, it's just common sense to keep to the short prayers at this age), otherwise I'm NOT using a formal religion curriculum - understanding some of the things in the curriculum I had on hand (Image of God) was completely over his head and he wasn't interested.

So...

I ordered God's Love Story (Catholic Heritage Curriculum) and My Jesus and I (I think CHC carries this too - I know Seton has this book), Little Acts of Grace, a Catholic children's picture Bible... and then I look up corresponding activities to go with (online - great blogs out there!).

Using the picture books I mentioned above, and crafts, with exposure and memorization is working MUCH better than the formal curriculum for my son.

For music we use "Making Music, Praying Twice" - it's amazing. We bought the curriculum and my FIL (a music teacher and music shoppe owner) is sending us the random *other* things the curriuclum suggests (shaky eggs, tamborines, bells, noise blocks, etc).

Religion: God's Love Story and related days of creation craft. continue working to memorize the Hail Mary, work on more fluidity when making the Sign of the Cross.

Music: Listen and free sing/dance (using Making Music/Praying Twice - we're waiting on our "instruments" to arrive so we can really dive into this!)

Handwriting: Aa, Bb, Cc, Dd, name

What curriculum are you using for religion, or did you create it yourself? I ordered something from Seton, but I still need more. Your religion lessons sound like what I want to do!
Also, are you using any certain music program? Thanks so much for sharing!

For our youngest (2nd): 3s times tables and Abacus; Writing (Writing with Ease using cursive) and Spelling; Memorizing a poem; History (officially ancient people of the Americas, although he keeps wanting to read about the Romans); Violin; Japanese/Spanish/Hebrew. Plus Violin and Art History/Studio.